Commentary: Newport-Mesa schools need more student counselors

Can you handle the truth? Recently we had another school shooting in this country.

I heard someone say that such shootings are an epidemic. They are.

So what does it mean for our Newport-Mesa schools? The easy access to guns is always the quick answer, but that problem isn’t going to be solved soon, if ever.

The Seattle-area shooter didn’t seem to fit the profile of the kid who was quiet and a little different and appeared to have been bullied. This child was an athlete, reasonably popular and had nothing that seemed to set him apart from the other students.

I am betting right now that at least one teacher had noticed the student and been worried about him. In most of these campus-shooter cases, I am sure that multiple teachers had been concerned about the students and felt unable to express their concerns or act upon them.

Here’s the truth: Even in the wonderland of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, a large percentage of students have serious mental-health issues that are sometimes temporary and sometimes not. Teachers may feel that their hands are tied. They may be reluctant to write down their observations and conjectures regarding students for fear of parental backlash, including the possibility that they and the school could be sued.

The result is that the sixth-grade teacher will not have a record of experiences from previous teachers of a particular child.

As a parent, I would not want to hear such information either, but in the long run, if it was accompanied by channels of help — somewhere to go, someone to talk to — it might be easier to digest and do something about. If that help were a part of the social infrastructure of the district, it would literally save lives — one way or another.

So what do we need in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District? In my opinion, we need counselors, and lots of them, in every school. One counselor to every 50 kids would be the absolute minimum.

These counselors should be trained specifically to help students adjust to their sometimes-crazy households and the different feelings they have at certain ages, and to help the families as a whole, and not be afraid of retribution.

Even though Newport-Mesa is great, our students need psychological help now.

SANDY ASPER lives in Newport Beach.